No chance for decentralisation skeptics to croak disaster: construction of new schools is growing in Ukraine

About 60 new general secondary educational institutions were built in Ukraine over the period of 2014-2017. According to the data of the State Architecture and Building Inspection of Ukraine, the largest number of such new buildings – 25 of them – appeared in 2017. For comparison, in 2012 and 2013, only 9 general secondary educational institutions were put into operation.

MinRegion explains a significant growth of schools’ construction in Ukraine by the increase of state financial support for the development of hromadas and their infrastructure, as well as increase of local budget revenues.

“In total, in 2017, the state budget envisaged almost UAH 15 billion to fund the projects of regional and local importance, so that local authorities could solve infrastructure issues. It is a significant support. For comparison, in 2014 only half a billion UAH were spent on social and economic development. The situation has radically changed since 2015, when the Government implemented the first stage of financial decentralisation. Since then, local budgets and state financial support for the development of hromadas and their infrastructure have been increasing,” said Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine.

At the same time, Vyacheslav Nehoda drew attention to the data of the State Treasury of Ukraine, showing that many local budgets have significant balances (that is definitely a positive feature), but unjustifiably large savings on bank deposits.

“These funds should flow into the economy and foster the development of territories, they should be invested, including the construction of social and transport infrastructure. Though for some reason they are kept on deposits. Local governments just cannot invest in banks. In civilised countries, the situation is absolutely opposite – banks provide loans to municipalities for projects. Local self-government bodies have to be careful about making their decisions on budget planning,” said the First Deputy Minister.

Earlier, Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services, stated that 790 investment programmes were launched in the regions of Ukraine in 2017 within the framework of the State Fund for Regional Development, of which 399 facilities were completed and put into operation.

In 2018, the state continues to provide financial support to implement investment and regional development projects:

UAH6 billion – at the expense of the State Fund for Regional Development,

UAH5 billion – subvention for the implementation of measures on social and economic development of some territories,

UAH1.9 billion – subvention for the formation of infrastructure of amalgamated hromadas,

UAH1 billion – subvention for the implementation of measures aimed at development of the healthcare system in rural areas.

Besides, local budgets will use UAH 4 billion of subvention during 2018 to implement measures aimed at healthcare system development in rural areas, obtained at the end of 2017.